


neither the angels nor the demons

by bichaelmanes



Series: Immortal Husbands fics [2]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Heartbreaking, Hurt, IT IS TIME, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:01:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25658632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bichaelmanes/pseuds/bichaelmanes
Summary: Joe and Nicky face the worst thing yet.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Immortal Husbands fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1866865
Comments: 16
Kudos: 144





	neither the angels nor the demons

**Author's Note:**

> So I was on my way to a meeting when I was suddenly struck by the terrible thought of either Nicky or Joe dying, leaving the other alone in this world. And because I'm a massive masochist, I decided to write it. I am so sorry.
> 
> The title is (loosely) from "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe

Joe had always known the day was coming. Of course he'd known, he's not an idiot. But knowing it and being prepared to face it were two vastly different things. Something he was going to find out very soon.

Joe and Nicky had been mourning the death of Booker, whose wounds, after nearly a millennium of fighting, finally stopped healing. Sebastian Le Livre went peacefully and calmly into the next world, and they were happy that he had finally found peace…it still hurt. They had also taken another immortal into their little family, a small spitfire of a person named Kati, with whom Nile had formed a bond not unlike Joe and Nicky’s own.

Even though Joe wasn’t aging, he was starting to feel old. Slowly, he was starting to understand the haunted look he had been seeing on Andy’s face, in the year before the Merrick incident. Increasingly, he noticed he was forgetting things. Names, places, times. History blurs together when you see so much of it. He knew his Nicky felt the exact same way. They fought for what was good and what was just, they knew this world still needed them, but sometimes Joe wished he would go to sleep and never wake up.

A feeling that would intensify a thousand-fold very soon, though Joe was unaware of it. At this very moment, he was trying to keep a group of deadly assassins from assassinating a group of children.

“ _Joe!_ ” Nile’s scream was of an intensity that Joe seldom heard, and his heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t often the ex-marine was so overcome with fear that her throat rasped when she screamed. Ending the last assassin’s life, Joe turned on his heels and ran towards the sound of Nile, who was still yelling his name frantically.

It took him a second to register what he was seeing. Then he dropped to his knees, feeling like he’d been shot in the chest point-blank. Nile’s hands were slick with blood, her entire body was trembling, and tears were streaming freely down her face as Kati looked on helplessly. Between them lay Nicky, a gaping wound in his side. “He’s not healing, why isn’t he healing, oh my god!” Nile yelled frantically. “Joe, I’m so sorry, I tried to stop them, I did, I’m so – ”

Joe could only stare at the still body of the love of his life, feeling as though he himself were dying. After over 1500 years of never spending more than a few decades apart, Joe realized that he was now going to have to face the rest of his life alone.

A soft voice rasped, “It’s okay, Nile,” and Joe’s heart leapt. Nicky was still alive! They could heal him!

Scrambling over to sit next to Nicky’s head, Joe looked down at his lover, his husband, his _everything_ , who was looking very peaceful, for a man about to bleed out. “Nicky,” Joe muttered, “Nicky, what do we need to do, how can we heal you?” Andy lived to the ripe old age of god damn 80 because they protected her vigorously. They could do the same for Nicky.

Nicky coughed, a smile appearing on his face as he lifted his trembling hand to touch Joe’s face. “You cannot, _amore mio_. It is my time. I will have peace. _Non disperare, Yusuf_ ,” he said, when Joe gasped and grasped Nicky’s hand tighter. “It is destiny. We knew it would come.”

Joe shook his head, even though he knew what Nicky was saying was absolutely true. “No, _Nicolò_ , I cannot live without you, what will I do?”

Nicky smiled at him, looking for all the world as if he were not dying, but merely about to fall asleep. “You will live. You will love. You will fight for what is right. And when your time comes, we will see each other again. _Io e te per sempre, Yusuf_. Death does not change it.”

“I love you, Nicky, _ti amo_ , I do not know how to go on.” Joe was fully crying, feeling like his heart was going with Nicky, leaving him living but not alive.

“ _Ti amo_ , my love.” Nicky used what little strength he had to pull Joe down to put their foreheads together. “We had our time. Thank you for loving me. You saved me. I am forever grateful for you, my Joe, my love, my heart.”

Joe let out a pained sob as he pressed his lips to Nicky’s. Nicky’s mouth was already cold, the blood loss beginning to show in everything. Next to them, Nile was sobbing quietly in Kati’s shoulder, but Joe barely registered them. His whole universe had shrunken to his dying Nicky in his arms. “You saved me, too, _Nicolò_. I was drowning when you found me. You taught me how to swim. I love you so much, your kindness, your selflessness, your heart, you are everything and more. I give you my heart to guard until I find you again.”

Nicky closed his eyes and laughed painfully. “You are an incurable romantic,” he said and pulled Joe down for a kiss. Joe kissed Nicky like he was an ocean and Joe wanted to drown. In the back of his head, Joe knew this would be his last kiss with Nicky. His last kiss of his life. After a while Joe realised Nicky had stopped moving, and, heart beating, he raised his head to see Nicky lying slack in Joe’s arms.

“Nicky?” Joe said, his voice breaking. “ _Nicolò_? _Per favore, Nicolò_. Nicky!” He started frantically shaking Nicky’s shoulder, but there was no response. “ _Nicolò_!” Joe kissed Nicky’s cold lips, but there was no response. He pounded on his chest, hoping to restart his heart, but nothing happened. Joe stared in horror as the colour drained from his Nicky’s face, even as the love of his life looked like he was just sleeping peacefully. Joe knew better, however.

His Nicky was dead.

“No,” Joe muttered, looking frantically around for something to cling on to. Nile was crying, her hand covering her mouth to force back the noise of her grief, Kati wrapping their arms around her. Joe’s heart was hammering in his chest, like it was trying to join Nicky in the afterlife. “No, Nicky…no, I can’t live without him, _please_!” He looked up at the sky, praying to his God and Nicky’s, and any other that might be out there. “Please, bring him back!” Nothing happened. “Bring him back to me!”

“Joe…” Kati said, their hand landing on his shoulder, and in reflex, he slapped it away. They didn’t back down however, putting it back without so much as blinking. “I’m so sorry, Joe. I can’t imagine the pain…”

“No, you can’t!” Joe said, his voice breaking as his heart did, looking down at his Nicky, lying in the dirt like he hadn’t been the man by Joe’s side for nearly two millennia, like he hadn’t been alive at all. “This man was next to me for most of my life, he was my _person_ , he held me when I was afraid, protected me when I was weak, and he kept me sane. Now I have to face the world _alone_!” he snarled, but at the last word he broke down again and crumbled, his forehead resting on Nicky’s cold one. The sobs that were wrenched from his chest was something entirely new, it hurt in a way that he knew would never truly fade away, and Joe allowed it to hurt, even as it felt like he wanted to tear out his heart and fling it into the ocean to join Nicky.

“You’re not alone, Joe,” Nile said, moving to sit next to him. “We got you. We’re with you. We’ll get you through this.”

“No,” Joe moaned, his fingers burying in Nicky’s blood-soaked shirt, his eyes clenched shut, the pain in his heart overwhelming him. “No, no, no. _No_.” He continued to mutter, in all the languages he knew, to pray for someone to bring his love back to him, but deep down he knew it was no use. He knew the truth even as he tried to deny it.

Nicolò di Genova was gone from this world.

Yusuf Al-Kaysani was alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!
> 
> I might write a one-shot where Joe is the one who dies and leaves Nicky. How much would y'all hate me for it?


End file.
